Crystallization-Study of Jeremiah and Lamentations
Message Three
The Two Evils of God’s People
and God’s Faithfulness
in Fulfilling His Economy
OPENING WORD
OF THE PROPHESYING MEETING
Reading the verses in each day.
Reading the main points in the outlines.
Pray-reading the verses:
Jer. 2:13 For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, which hold no water.
1 Cor. 1:9 God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Word of Appetizer
What does it mean that God is faithful in fulfilling His economy?
We need to see that we are not better than Israel. Anything can become an idol to us. But God is faithful in fulfilling His economy. In His faithfulness He deals with our idols that we may drink of Him. We all need to drink of God as the fountain of living waters, receiving Christ into us and assimilating Him, so that He may increase for the fulfillment of God’s economy to have His expression through His counterpart.
Spiritual Burden
Jeremiah, a book full of speaking concerning Israel’s sin and God’s wrath, chastisement, and punishment, reveals that God’s intention in His economy is to be the fountain, the source, of living waters to dispense Himself into His chosen people for their satisfaction and enjoyment with the goal of producing the church, God’s counterpart, as God’s increase, God’s enlargement, to be God’s fullness for His expression; the kernel of the divine revelation is that God created us and redeemed us for the purpose of working Himself into us to be our life and our everything.
CONCLUDING WORD
OF THE PROPHESYING MEETING
The Revelation of the Truth
The kernel of the divine revelation is that God created us and redeemed us for the purpose of working Himself into us to be our life and our everything.
“My people have committed two evils: / They have forsaken Me, / The fountain of living waters, / To hew out for themselves cisterns, / Broken cisterns, / Which hold no water”; these two evils govern the entire book of Jeremiah.
We need to see God’s faithfulness in fulfilling His economy. Although we are unfaithful, God is faithful. God is faithful in calling us into the fellowship of His Son. In allowing us to have troubles, God is faithful in His purpose. God is faithful in leading us into His economy.
The Experience of Life
Apart from God Himself dispensed into us as living water, nothing can quench our thirst. God intended to dispense Himself into man as man’s satisfaction so that He might be enlarged, but man became unfaithful and unchaste and forsook God for idols. Whatever we possess and even whatever we are can become an idol; Israel was evil and unfaithful to God in forsaking God for idols; in the matter of such unfaithfulness to God, we are the same as Israel. God’s faithfulness is a matter of dealing with these idols and causing us to drink of Him.
Practice and Application
We all need to drink of God as the fountain of living waters, receiving Christ into us and assimilating Him so that He may increase for the fulfillment of God’s economy.
There is no need for us to worry about our situation; God is patient, sympathetic, and compassionate, and He will take the time to make us mature. We should be the true worshippers of God, who is the fountain of living waters, by drinking Him so that He can be the reality within us, which eventually becomes our genuineness and sincerity in which we worship God with the worship that He seeks.
PROPHESYING TOPICS—
TWELVE TOPICS PER WEEK
Day 1
T1: God’s economy is to dispense Himself as the living water to produce His increase, His enlargement, to be His expression (Jer. 2:13; 1 Cor. 12:13; 10:3-4).
(Please explain that this thought is strengthened by Paul’s writings.)
T2: The water of life is the Triune God flowing out to be our life (1 Cor. 12:13; John 7:37).
(To drink of the water of life, we first need to be positioned to drink, and we also need to be thirsty.)
Day 2
T1: Three pictures portrayed in the Scriptures: the smitten rock with water flowing out of it, Christ on the cross with blood and water flowing from His pierced side, and God on the throne, out of which flows the river of water of life. (Exo. 17:6; John 19:34; Rev. 22:1)
(Please explain that the water in these pictures refers to the one water.)
T2: All this becomes our experience by drinking of the living water (Exo. 17:6; 1 Cor. 10:4; Rev. 22:1).
(Please use your experience to explain that the more we drink this water, the more we experience and enjoy the riches of Christ.)
Day 3
T1: Israel should have drunk of God as the fountain of living waters that they might become His increase as His expression, but instead they committed two evils (Jer. 2:13; John 4:13-14).
(Please describe two evils which the children of Israel have committed.)
T2: Israel chose many idols, which are of no benefit, to replace the unique God, who is their glory (Jer. 2:11; Rom. 1:23).
(Please explain how the evil of worshipping idols can be applied to us today.)
Day 4
T1: In the eyes of God, the wicked one, is the one who does not come to drink of Him (Jer. 2:13; Isa. 55:7).
(Please explain that the evil condition of the wicked, in the eyes of God, is that they do not come to the Lord to eat, drink, and enjoy the Lord.)
T2: An idol in our heart is anything within us that we love and treasure more than the Lord and that replaces the Lord in our life (Ezek. 14:3, 5; 1 John 5:21)
(Please use your experience to explain that whatever we possess and even whatever we are can become an idol.)
Day 5
T1: God’s faithfulness is not according to our natural understanding (Lam. 3:23).
(Please explain that we should not understand God’s faithfulness in a natural way, thinking that He is faithful primarily in the matter physical blessings.)
T2: In allowing us to have troubles, God is faithful in His purpose (1 Cor. 1:9).
(According to the sufferings of the apostle Paul, please explain that God’s faithfulness is not according to our natural understanding.)
Day 6
T1: It was of Jehovah’s lovingkindness that the people of Israel were not consumed (Lam. 3:22-23; Jer. 23:5-6).
(Please explain that Israel’s failure opened the way for Christ to come in to be their righteousness.)
T2: God is patient, sympathetic, and compassionate, and He will take the time to make us mature (2 Cor. 1:3-4; Rev. 21:2).
(Please explain that God has a way to cause us to mature and then to bring us into the New Jerusalem.)
